The UFC made headlines last night when a story broke that they shut down and sued a website offering pirated UFC content. Today a representative for the promotion gave more detail on their effort:

Individuals who settle sign a confidentiality agreement, said Lonstein, who declined to disclose figures on the typical dollar amount paid to the UFC. A recent report cited one unanswered lawsuit from a previous website target, Greenfeedz.com, that netted the promotion $11,948.70 in damages and legal fees.

Lonstein said pirates are sued on the basis of copyright law and the Communications Act of 1934, which regulates communications commerce domestically and abroad, but declined to go into further specifics about the UFC’s legal approach to curbing piracy.

She would not say how much money had been recovered as the result of the legal actions, but said the figure over the past year is “a fraction compared to what the UFC has lost with piracy.” UFC chief legal officer Kirk Hendrick said the promotion’s losses are “millions and millions” of dollars yearly.

“There’s no shortage, unfortunately, of people who will try to take a shortcut,” Hendrick said. “We have an obligation to our customers and those athletes to continue to pursue the people who don’t want to pay for the goods and services they receive.”

if they have lost millions, it is from paying lawyers to fight this in court. People who are streaming would not be watching otherwise. If anything, it keeps them interested in the sport, and keeps them on board for potential future revenue streams.

Pirated streams are of the shittiest quality. Anybody willing to watch that shit, is absolutely not willing or able to spend $55 on a ppv. Their alternative is not watching at all.

"She would not say how much money had been recovered as the result of the legal actions, but said the figure over the past year is “a fraction compared to what the UFC has lost with piracy.” - - - Makes sense. Sue to recover 10k-20k and piss off fans in the process, instead of adapting to today's current technology.

“There’s no shortage, unfortunately, of people who will try to take a shortcut,” - - - EXACTLY. This is a fight Zuffa cannot and will not win.

ufc98newb - if they have lost millions, it is from paying lawyers to fight this in court. People who are streaming would not be watching otherwise. If anything, it keeps them interested in the sport, and keeps them on board for potential future revenue streams.

Pirated streams are of the shittiest quality. Anybody willing to watch that shit, is absolutely not willing or able to spend $55 on a ppv. Their alternative is not watching at all.

Downloading is just a part of the culture right now. It crippled the music industry.

Think about it...15 years ago, you like one song and youd have to go out and spend $18 to buy a shitty CD.

Now if you want to have Freebird by Skynard on your ipod, you can just download their entire discography for free. What gets tricky is determining what the real lost revenue is. Is it the $0.99 that the user should've spent on Itunes for the song? It surely isn't for all the albums in the discography, but that would seem to be the sentiment being taken here by UFC's legal team.

At the end of the day, I don't stream because I like to be around people when I watch fights, but many people out there who stream wouldn't have bought the product anyway. Even though they don't pay for the product, they promote the sport in other ways, by talking to people about it online, etc etc. As a North American fan, it's by far the most expensive sport to follow.

This is just a really tricky time to figure all of this stuff out and I don't know if anyone really knows the answer to anything.

That woman is exactly the type the UFC has been looking for. Their office workers probably make double what the average fighter is currently making. You don't hear about the UFC sacking or having disputes with these guys tho. Why? because Zuffa can't bully lawyers, executives or assistants: there are other jobs out there. and fuck that bitch.

If they don't like getting pirated they should figure out a way to make their product affordable to more fans. I would gladly pay something for UFC, but that amount is not $55 a pop. If they wanted to sell a package - 10 cards for 200 bucks or something like that, I would be a paying customer.

I know Dana's response is, "Get 5 friends together and it's only 10 dollars each." Well guess what Dana- unless Brock, Chuck, Randy, GSP or Anderson are on the card- most people, myself included, don't have five friends who give a solitary FUCK about the UFC. Certainly not at the rate they pump out cards these days.

There used to be days where a card was good enough, I'd fork out the money on my own for a PPV. Now I don't even think to purchase because cards aren't worth the price. I know I'm not alone in that sentiment. I either go to the pub and watch or don't at all which I'm certain is the case for the majority of people who stream.

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